Coursera Review 2019 – Top Reasons To Love Its Courses

I have written this article for sharing my views about the Coursera review. I have written this review after looking at a few courses. You will find details about Coursera offerings, types of courses, fees, and advantages & disadvantages of the platform in this article.

I am a young person always looking to learn new things. I have done Bachelors in Engineering and want to pursue Masters to enhance my career. So, I was searching for a good online Master’s program. My search led to Coursera and I liked it instantly.

Alas! I have a limited means. My current situation does not allow me to pursue a course from top-ranking Global universities. But I have made up my mind to save some money and join a good degree course next year.

Coursera is one of the few platforms that provide certification and degree courses from top universities. There another notable and worthy competitor is edX. Both are very good. Ultimately it comes down to personal choice, of course, instructor, and university.

Let’s talk about Coursera in this article.

Coursera Review

What Is Coursera?

Coursera was founded by Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller in 2012. Coursera offers courses, specializations, and degrees. Over the past years, Coursera has accumulated a vast no. of the best universities around the world.

Coursera teaches lectures from the instructor around the best university. Each & every lecture is being taught by some of the faculty from the famous university.

The faculty from these elite university makes sure that there is no quality problem of the lectures. I have seen some people, saying that, it feels like it’s a classroom like teaching.

Coursera Certificate

Coursera provides certificate & degree for all of its courses. This could be a great deal. The certifications & degree provided are from the world’s renowned university. Coursera provides three types of certifications,

1- Master Degree

2- Verified Certificate

3- Specialization Certificate

Let me differentiate between them:-

Master Degree – Coursera offers a Master Degree in the field of Business, Computer Science & Engineering, Data Science & Public Health. While the certificate is credited to anyone who completes the course. These are the online certificate from the top ranking universities of the world.

Verified Certificate – Courses usually have certifications that are very much in demand. You could show this to your potential’s employers. These certifications could help you in landing a job. They could also be helpful in your promotions.

The Verified course looks something like this.

3. Specialization Certificate – These are the certificate that you can get after completing certain skills. This certificate is offered to you when you complete certain skills a few courses in continuation.

The Specialization Certificate looks something like this.

Coursera Specializations

I have talked about the Coursera Specializations Degree in my previous section. You might ask “what is Coursera specializations”. so let us see here:-

When you want to master any skills, then taking a few courses wouldn’t be sufficient. You have to take a multiple no. of classes to master that skills. If this is true for you, then Coursera Specialization Courses are for you.

By choosing Coursera Specialization, you will be able to do multiple no. of classes to achieve mastery in that skill.

You have to complete a series of rigorous courses. You also have to complete some hands-on project based on the real business world. After doing all this you will be able to achieve a Coursera Specializations Degree.

Coursera Courses

Coursera holds tons of courses on its platform. The courses range from Arts, Computer Science to New Technology like Data Science. Some of the courses are as below: –

These are all the broad categories in Coursera Courses. If you look into each topic, there are many courses in those categories.

The Coursera offers you a wide range of programs on its platform. These programs are mentioned below: –

1. Courses Program

In this category, you can select any courses that you want to study. The Programs in these Courses are pre-recorded. These also come with the assignment which will be the peer-to-peer review. You can also receive a certificate upon course completion.

2. Coursera Specialization

In this category, you will be awarded a Specialization Certificate. You will be doing a series of course with projects to handle. You will receive a certificate upon completion of this course & can be able to share to the world.

3. Professional Certificate

It is for a job-seeking person. You complete a certificate that helps you to pass the Industry level exam. This could also help you with relevant experience to launch a career in a new field.

4. Master Track Certificate

This course helps you to complete your master degree from the top university in the world. The programs have been divided into several modules to help ease with your education. You will be required to do Real-World projects. The experts will be mentoring you live.

Before applying for Master Certificate, you need to qualify for this program. You need to satisfy the conditions mentioned in the programs. Your application will be reviewed by university & verify if you fall on their criteria.

Note – Check the requirement, before taking any master degree. You will get a clear idea if you could qualify for that course or not.

These courses offer a wide range of platforms for everyone to view upon.

Courses don’t start at any random time. There is a specific date on which you can enroll for the course. You have to wait for some of the course to start. You can check the dates on which course will begin. Normally, there is no long wait for the course.

There are also some of the courses that don’t require any timing. You can enroll in those courses at any random time. You can check if that particular course has any date or not.

Coursera Cost

The prices on Coursera is pretty much hidden. It wouldn’t be shown to you till the time you don’t enroll in that course. Hence, due to this reason, it is pretty much difficult to find the prices straight forward.

I have to look upon various courses on its platform. The prices on Coursera differs greatly. The prices depend upon the courses, the university offering it & many other factors.

Coursera runs on 2 different plans for different users: –

1. Coursera Subscription

Some of the courses run on a subscription-based plan. They offer you a free trial of 7 days after which they charge you. The Price will be between $39-$79 per month.

The courses offered in this plan are usually Specialization & Course. You can continue learning until the time you are paying.

2. Purchase Plan

The fees on this plan are just for one time. You just need to pay only once & you are just good with the course. No need to pay monthly fees for the course.

You can buy whole courses at once. The courses that usually comes to this price range are “Master Degree.” These are usually costlier as compared to a Subscription Plan.

The prices are very different for the master program. The prices could be in between $15,000 – $20,000 for the courses. But again, this could vary depending upon University & courses.

Coursera Master Degree Plan

The master degree courses on Coursera are generally ranged from 1-3 years

The course in Purchase plan usually starts at a predefined time. You can’t just enroll in these courses at any random time. You will also have to wait until the course doesn’t begin. But till the time course doesn’t start, you can look at their overview & get more insight into that.

You can also get the information of instructors, University offering the course, etc. That way you can sort if you want this or not.

Coursera Financial Aid

Coursera does provide financial aid to the person who can’t afford to pay the fees.

Financial aid can take up to 15 days to get approval. In the meantime, you can start learning in “Audit Mode”. The approval of financial aid can take up to 15 days to review. You need to apply with Your ID, career goal & Financial Background. Your approval of courses depends on these applications.

While your application is under review, it is advisable from my side to start your journey of learning. Coursera only provides 180 days to complete your certification.

Coursera Free Courses

There are different ways through which you can get free learning or courses from Coursera. Coursera does provide free to everyone. If you just want to learn any new technology then you are free to join courses on Coursera for free.

Free Courses on Coursera

How can you get courses for free?

You can audit the courses on Coursera for free. They will not charge you a single penny for auditing the course. You will get this option (Audit) to at the time of enrolling in the course. You will get the option to Pay Or Audit course for free.

What is Auditing in Coursera?

Auditing is a phenomenon in Coursera from which you can watch all the tutorials & video learning for free. You will get all the course materials at a zero cost.

Coursera Drawbacks

There are few drawbacks for this. These are as following: –

No Certificate – You will not be awarded any kind of certificate for auditing. You can learn the courses but you wouldn’t get any credits for this.

Can’t help you in your career: – You wouldn’t get any certificate in the audit. It can’t help you in your career growth. Yes, you could get some knowledge, but it can’t really help you in your career.

Can’t Show Your Talent To World – No certification means that you can’t really show your talent & knowledge to the world. You can’t get any certificate to share anywhere.

Not All Courses Has This Audit Facility – So, most of the program on this platform has this audit facility but not all the programs have this facility. Free Auditing is set by Universities. They could able or disable this facility.

Coursera Refund policy

The refund policy is quite simple in Coursera. If you don’t want to continue any course for whatsoever reason than you are free to get a refund of the course.

Coursera Course Refund

If you have paid the fees for any individual course you can get the full refund within the 2 weeks’ time period. But there are few reasons for not getting the refund. They are as below: –

1. You have earned a course certificate.
2. The 2-weeks’ time periods have passed.

Final Assessment Of Coursera Platform

The USP

The USP (Unique Selling Point) of Coursera is that it provides Classroom-Like Learning. There is nothing like Coursera if you want to have class-room like learning from your home.

Coursera Pros

With all the above said, lets me take you to all the pros & cons of this website.

Here is the list of Top 11 positive points of Coursera.

The flexibility of study – You can study anytime that you want. You can study from the Top Ranking University in the world. Online learning could help greatly with all the learning from the world’s Top University.

Global Experience – Instructors are from the world’s renowned university. You will get an insight of those instructors. This could help you with global exposure with the best teachers.

Mobile App – Coursera provides with Mobile App. You can study from Coursera at any point in time. The mobile app greatly removes the burden & pain of carrying your laptop everywhere. With the mobile app, you can study anytime, anywhere.

Downloadable videos -Coursera provides lots of courses that you can download. So, when you are out of the coverage area, you can study with downloadable videos.

Certifications – You will be awarded a certificate from the world’s elite university. But you have to pay a small fee to them for that. These certificates could greatly help you in your professional life. You can attach these certificates to your resume. You can also add these certificates to your LinkedIn Profile.

Financial Aid – If you don’t have money to pay for certifications, you can apply for Financial Aid.

Free to Learn – Coursera doesn’t charge from anyone to learn. They are totally free to use. You can learn almost anything for free.

Many Specializations and courses -Coursera provides a lot of courses on its platform. There are lots of options to choose from. You can literally get 1000s of courses of Coursera. Come & choose from a vast range of options available.

10. Professional certificates from Google, IBM, etc – You will be able to get a Professional Certificate from some of the best companies in the world. You can get a certificate from corporations like Google or IBM. These certificates could be highly valuable in your professional life.

11. Academic and Technical support – Coursera do provide Academic & Technical support to all its courses. They provide all the assistance that you need during your course period.

Coursera Cons

There is some drawback of Coursera too. Here is the list: –

Costly – Coursera could be costly for some of the people. Some of the degree courses could appear costly for some of the people. But, they are not as costly if you look at the actual tuition fees of those universities.

Doesn’t Help In Job Search – There is no platform on Coursera to find a job. You have to try yourself.

Who should buy this course?

This course could be bought by the different following type of people.

Advance Your Career – Coursera could help you with your career advancement. Learn a new skill or master any skill, & earn a certificate. You can show the certificate to your potential employer, that could help you in landing a job.

Complete Higher Education – You can complete higher education from Coursera. You can do a Master Degree from Coursera. So, if you want to do higher education from your home than it is definitely a go. You will be accredited with a certificate from the top university in the world.

Passionate About Any Skill – If you are passionate about any skill, where a certificate doesn’t matter for you, then you can apply for Coursera. You can learn those skills for free.

Summary

Coursera is one of the best platforms to learn from the world’s best university. You can join Coursera if you want to have global exposure. Joining Coursera could add an extra edge in your resume. The certificates are from some of the best in the world. So, it definitely a go from my side.